Caldefor/StoryHour
3-22-2008 In Person, 3-22-2008: Randy, Jonathan, Max side trek to retrieve Rakasha military leaders from the 1000 Baronies. (Occurs more or less when the rest of the gang is recruiting the Pachek and the Rappa.) ----- 3-18-2008 (1150 xp base) Caldefor Skype Session: Alisa, Adam, Pete, Genny, Reyn, Max Plan to take southern Circle and attempt to reestablish it, shifting the shadowline and forcing out the lesser undead at Ripgut. Used to be Circle Treehaven. The Pachek could help us reinforce an area rich in trees. We want to pillage from Bastion's Manor, then head south to try for the circle. We could send the Eums to Ripgut to fight the bigger undead, by making sure they think Drakhl was in league with the bigger undead. We want them out of our way, and softening Ripgut for us. Can't have them seeing us use Tarkhenian clerics or anything. -- From Adam: The forces at Ripgut: Originally, there were 400 skeletal undead, 50 incorporeal, 600 black eums, 500 slaves of various sorts (other eums and goblyns, mostly), plus the personal households of Ripgut and Drakhl. Out of that number, some 300 or so black eums have died, as well as all or almost all of Drakhl's household. My guess is that most of the slaves won't want to fight on either side, but it might be possible for us to rally them. I'm fairly confident that our army plus the eums could wipe out the 400 skeletal undead without much difficulty. I'm less confident about the incorporeal undead-- those can be really deadly, especially if they can generate spawn. I also think we should double-check the personal household of Ripgut. That could also be dangerous. -- First we must find the black Eums who are looking for us in Tarkenia, then get them all to pursue the undead at Ripgut. We set ourselves up in a gibbet to be caged and appear prisoners, for the Eums to rescue. We wait for the Eums to come and find us. We get sprung in the night by a rogue of some sort, and recover our supplies and go back through the shadowline. All of us head back to the Manor. We follow the Eums back to meet with Zolt, after his rogue and shaman help get us out. The Eums are healing themselves and revere the dragons, especially Black ones. Zolt and other Eums have a big map, they are plotting attacking the undead at Ripgut. Only 20 of the undead are powerful enough to provide resistance. Drakhl will have underliches and a vampyre knight. They would need to get past the guards with Zolt, Shaman and half the knights (10) to get to the vampyre, the rest of the knights fighting the lesser liches. The Eums could go to Ripgut with Drakhl's phylactery to draw out the defenses and/or the undead and let them fight more easily. We mock taking pains to retrieve the phylactery, while doing some shopping. Then Snaggletooth (Twang's familiar) and Spring go in ahead to scout while the rest march with the Eum army towards DH Ripgut. Sir Irving Totten is the vampyre knight, famed duelist, wearing his sword, and communing with something. Very able in combat. Some goblyn slaves around as food, and some very buff muscular undead guards. Handful of wraiths, one ghost around. Totten might be talking with abyssal spirits bound to the structure that report to him. When we kill him we take his part-adamantine sword and his magic cravat (of graceful movement, +4 to Dex for 10 rounds per day). The Quasiliches do some necromancy, with spellbooks. Their private chambers are where they kill the goblyns, preserve the meat, and render the bones with rituals to fill the vats of bone marrow they have. They have an evil, intelligent book, whose directions they are following. Some undead have been created as a side effect. Their goal is to open a gate to the Negative Material Plane to bring forth a great beast that lives there. Bringing a Lord would boost their defense, and they want to lure some trueborn to be weak, slave supplies. No sign of succubi or other demons at DH, perhaps because they were bound to Ripgut. The entire Dragonhold's forces comes out to rescue the phylactery. Spring draws the ghost off from the fight, and the vampyre falls, thanks to many spells and Zolt fighting and Konrad's nasty long-term spell damage. We chase the vampyre's spirit back to one of his coffins. We take down the ghost, then chase after the vampyre to destroy it when it's resting in its coffin. We then take what we can salvage & loot from the DH and then we destroy it so no others can use it for defenses. Armory is full of mundane weapons (which we can use to arm the manor): 500 swords, 450 crossbow, 600 pikes, 400 sets of terrible armor, 2 launchers (like portable catapults) with globes of white gas (20 total, cause cramping and death), 20 antique Caldeforian tower shields, 2000-4000 of crossbow bolts. Under a secret floor panel is Ripgut's treasure. 25,000 silver, 4 pieces of massive jewelry, bandolier with 4 vials (2 unknown, 1 potion of binding, 1 potion of prismatic spray), a bracelet set with 5 large amber stones (each stone glows a different shade). While looking around for more hidden treasure we set off a trap with 3 demons appearing to attack us. We dispatch them pretty easily, with Alvira's help. Beneath more traps is a very well-worked tooled leather pouch with runes we cannot recognize. In the pouch is a scroll sealed with a complex runic symbol with spider, and a short softly glowing adamantine rod. The Dracolich has a 3' x 5' spellbook easily located. We find other spellbooks, a Ring of Prescience (+1 insight to attacks), Jar of Restorative Healing ointment (2 doses). Other loot includes the vampire's Cravat of Graceful Movement and his part-adamantine sword. ----- 02-21-2008 The large group of reinforcements heading to Clawfast may well suffer from the Bonewater Dust as they close in on the Dragonhold. Approaching the Shadowline, with Lord Varlan in tow. He seems excited. We also have a goblyn in tow, who is nervous. He takes Buzz's hand and approaches cautiously. We have emerged near Circle Waterside, and we come out nearby a village, but still on some unreclaimed land. Spring crosses through first, and gives Buzz and Varlan an illusory welcome with Ghost Sound. Varlan seems interested and bewildered, and walks along with Buzz following psionic crystals embedded in the tower. The rest of us scheme for ways to break the news to Varlan and what we might use against Dragonhold Ripgut. We also want to investigate the site of Ripgut's death battle. As they walk, Varlan can read inscriptions in Celestial that protect the tower. He recognizes that he is in a powerful place, and that a Hastur is present. Buzz convinces him that the tower's residents might not realize who they are, or that the defenders know Buzz and Varlan have no violent intent. Varlan is scared of being killed by the Hasturs, knowing they don't take prisoners. Lord Varlan clearly does not favor destruction or evil. He also has lingering feelings about his mother's heritage. Buzz gives him a detailed Psionic lecture about the crystals. Varlan seems to be able to hear the psicrystals, meaning he has some latent psionic ability, like many celestials. After a celestial is brought to speak with him he collapses into shock, to rest for a while as we investigate the site of Ripgut's battle. We also begin brainstorming dealing with the Eums of Dragonhold Ripgut. We decide to spread rumors among our soldiers, to be picked up by the Chaos Champion and her minions. We want them to believe that Lord Drakal orchestrated Ripgut's ambush and death, turning her against him and hopefully the Eums. Battle Site: Evidence of a good sized battle. Handful of local people are present, many dead cattle. Those driving the cattle were mostly slain or injured. The dragon's corpse is scattered about. Most of the right front leg is intact. Some scales have grayish-black powder embedded in them, obscuring the bearer's alignment. Ripgut also hurled a small casket from himself in the battle, to get rid of it or hide it. We begin dissecting dragon pieces and bringing back evidence. Sideh and Buzz go off to town to get a cart and mules to bring back items to the tower. They get the good graces of a mule. We manage to harvest some dragon parts and the casket. Some random bones start dragging the casket away, but we destroy it with positive energy and see a quasi-lich that seems to be watching us from across the shadow. Shooting needfire into the shadow seems to have drawn the attention of some lesser demons. The quasi-lich hunkers down and casts defensive spells (Shield). After loading up we get out and head towards the Tower. The casket contains the phylactery of Drakal the dracolich. We can use it to weaken him, kill him permanently, or blackmail him into doing our bidding. We'd like to use him to take out Lord Bastion, the vampire, clearing the way a bit more for our retaking of Caldefor territory. Leaving the Dracolich's phylactery at a tower is safest, and might let them research how to use the phylactery to connect or gain power over the dracolich. We need to make ourselves look self-interested, not Good. Our plan is to get Drakal to clear out Bastion's manor for us to then use, ostensibly. Next step: Send a message via the quasilich to the dracolich desiring a meeting to discuss terms because we have his phylactery. The raid on the clingfire supplies was countered, and the Chaos Champion is falling back to the Shadowland. Lord Varlan reacquaints with a Celestial and does not pass out. We start the slow process of convincing. To get to Drakal we toss a letter over the Shadowline saying "We have the phylactery and we want to negotiate." We get his support, but he wants evidence that we won't continue to hold the phylactery. ----- 12-20-2008 Notes & Summary: Gong system in place at camp. At least 3 gongs at the camp, to alert the large area. Central post in the camp, with skeletal creatures standing about it (one with a horn). Dragonhold Ripgut is well organized for a dragonkeep. Twang and Spring approach the fortification with (fake) news of cattle trading near the Shadowline. We get to the Western side. We pass through with news "of food" near the shadowline. We are informed by some black Eums to pass the information to the seneschal of the Dracolich. We pass by many Shadows and other undead. Passages go both up and down. Below we convince the guards we are not enemies, and there are many more living creatures below. The area below is a warren of passages. We follow one of the more damp ones, trying to map along the way. We get to a large room, containing some Black Eums and some undead, and across from them at the head of a stair downwards with a set of doors is a set of guards, heavily armored. They are four feet tall and grayish skinned, somewhat dwarf-like. Other gray skinned creatures are unloading barrels and crates from some pack lizards. A Black Eum who stopped us has a pouch of valuables. He hands it over, during conversation or business dealings, to one of the gray skinned dwarves. (Duergar probably) Eventually the gray skinned creatures close the doors and the armored ones leave. The Eums seem satisfied. We seem to have discovered the border doorway between the Underdark and the Dragonhold's caves. We then get some directions to the Seneschal's chamber. The Dracolich is Lord Drakal. We reach a bureaucratic chamber. The room has Eums and a half-dragon, at desks. The seneschal is the only one who is dead. The seneschal is skeletal, wearing a robe. We seem to impress him. He writes our names in Abyssal on some copper plates, to be rewarded later by tasty slaves. Liliana, the Chaos Champion, is temperamental, but in good graces with Ripgut. She is to be left alone, even though we spread rumors about her. She was loyal to the Light. Now she and her assistants will go across the border, preceded by some decoys meant to be killed. They have intelligence of a large supply of clingfire. Liliana and her chosen will conceal themselves across the border. The seneschal goes through an illusory (?) wall at the back of the chamber. Also in the room are lesser functionaries of the dragonhold. The half-dragon is watching us (half black and half something bluish), and is dressed magnificently. He calls us over with a servant. Lord Varlan is part Light and son of Ripgut. Perhaps we can turn him to defect. Ripgut keeps the troops from infighting. Liliana is hard to turn people against. Other Chaos Champions (from the south, of Mariat) on their way here might be easily turned into adversaries of the Eums. Varlan gives Twang and Spring rune-carved stone discs. He will seek us out through them when Ripgut departs. Upon description by Spring, Sideh thinks Varlan might be half-celestial. Also, the seneschal might be a lich-spawn (not as powerful as a lich). Before the night is over Ripgut leaves, and Varlan seeks us out. We introduce him to Konrad and Sideh and the Succubus. Varlan follows us northward; he wears a well made suit of armor, self crafted. He seems to have an uncanny knack for making things. He is slender, lacking facial hair, and has pointed ears, with well-cared for skin. He speaks and reads Celestial as well, inherently. We head north without any encounters and see a big shadow army (Eums and gobleens mostly) of 2000-3000 after 5 days of travel. No demons or major undead among them, clearly a force that has been sent to the West. They are reinforcements to Clawfast. Chaos Centaurs lead the group, which seems unorganized. Leaders from the Thronged City. We later encounter a group of 5 disguised gobleen, who we easily dispatch, Alvira having enticed one of them magically. A few hours later we encounter some creature that is powerful and omnipresent somehow. It is not visible to us, but calls itself Pale Night. It seems to know our natures and our thoughts. It knows our goals as well, but seems amused by us. It finds the war a waste of time and resources. It deals with other Nobles of the Abyss. Bets will be placed on us in the Abyss apparently, and we'll get something if we win. It leaves with laughter, and a hair from each of us. Missing some here...